December 21, 2012

Mammoth schools superintendent Rich Boccia said this week that he and Police Chief Dan Watson are reviewing safety procedures in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., massacre that took the lives of 20 kids and six adults.

Boccia, addressing the Town Council Wednesday evening, said neither he nor Watson will over-react.

December 21, 2012

We have owned a condo in Mammoth for many years, and recently contacted the Mammoth Police Department for assistance. The police officers have been responsive. No one knows when the services of the police will be required, and I would strongly urge the Mammoth Lakes Town Council to maintain the level of service and safety net now in place.

December 21, 2012

There has been so much handwringing about our failures around here this past year that it’s been easy to overlook Mammoth’s successes.

Yet we’ve had them, and not just little ones, either.

Last month, the new running track opened south of town at the Whitmore sports complex. It is hard to overstate what a remarkable achievement that is. It took five years of work in the form of grant writing, fund drives, and political maneuvering to get it done.

December 21, 2012

A major national credit ratings service on Wednesday declared Mammoth âstable,â lifting the town from the dregs of a âhighly vulnerableâ credit rating in the wake of settling its legal battle against Mammoth Lakes Land Acquisition (MLLA).

Assistant Town Manager Marianna Marysheva-Martinez delivered the news to the Town Council at its meeting Wednesday evening, just hours after Standard & Poorâs Rating Services raised Mammoth from a âCâ rating to âBB+.â

December 21, 2012

Using a motion sensor activated camera in Round Valley, members of the Eastern Sierra Land Trust have made a startling discovery.

With a camera purchased with grant funds from the Norcross Wildlife Foundation, ESLT documented 15 different species over a period of five months, ranging from tiny deer mice to the tawny mountain lion.
âWildlife migration corridors are defined as historic routes that many different wildlife species use to travel between different types of crucial habitats,â said the ESLTâs Karen Ferrell-Ingram.

December 21, 2012

Mammoth Dog Teams owner Jim Ouimet and his several dozen husky dogs have been without a permanent place to call home since 2003âand heâs going to have to wait until at least 2013 for that to change.

âWe will be bringing this up to the supervisors probably around the middle of January, with a staff analysis and the bids we have already done in hand,â said Jim Arkens, Mono Countyâs administrator.

Arkens spoke this week, after the outgoing board of supervisors punted another decision about the dogsled business to the incoming board that will take its seat in January.

December 20th

December 20, 2012

Search efforts continue for the single engine plane that may have gone missing over Yosemite National Park on Monday, December 17.

The pilot, recently identified as 68 year-old Nicol Wilson of Solvang, CA, was flying alone from Santa Barbara to Mammoth Lakes when he was last detected via radar in the afternoon of Dec. 17 near the North Dome area of the park. The plane, a 1966 Single-Engine Mooney, was reported missing by Wilson’s family when he didn’t arrive in Mammoth Monday night.

December 19th

December 19, 2012

Police arrested an 18-year-old Mammoth man during the early morning hours of Wednesday, Dec. 19, after responding to a call of an intoxicated man who had just left a local hotel.

While searching for the person in sub-zero temperatures, the two officers were called away to handle a domestic violence in progress, police said in a news release. After handling that, they returned to the area of South Frontage Road to continue their search.

December 19, 2012

On Dec. 17, in another setback for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the Kern County Superior Court ruled that LADWP must pay more than one million dollars in fees that itdeliberately withheld related to air pollution control measures for the dried Owens Lake bed.